Football: Dani Alves remanded in custody for sexual assault


Accused of sexual assault, the Brazilian international defender was heard on Friday by the Spanish police. The complainant accuses him of “rape”.





SourceAFP


The former right-back of FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain is the subject of an investigation by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia.
© Rungroj Yongrit / EPA

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UA Spanish judge on Friday ordered the pre-trial detention of Brazilian footballer Dani Alves for an alleged sexual assault at a Barcelona nightclub in late December, the Superior Court of Catalonia announced. After hearing the footballer under police custody, this magistrate decided to place Dani Alves “in pretrial detention” for “facts which allegedly took place in a nightclub” in the Catalan metropolis, the court said. in a press release.

“Barcelona Investigative Court No. 15 today heard footballer Dani Alves, accused by a woman of an alleged offense of sexual assault for facts that allegedly took place in a Barcelona nightclub in December,” said the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia in a brief statement. “The magistrate decided to remand” the player, as the prosecution had requested earlier, added the body.

His current club, the Pumas of Mexico, announced Friday evening to terminate the contract of the Brazilian. “With this decision, the club reiterates its commitment not to tolerate any act by any member of our institution, whoever it may be, to undermine the university spirit and its values”, detailed the president of the club of the National University of Mexico (UNAM), Leopoldo Silva.

“The National University club is an institution that promotes respect, honest, dignified and professional behavior of its players, on and off the pitch,” he added at a press conference. summoned the same day, without answering questions from journalists.

Risk of player “leakage”

According to a source familiar with the matter, the young woman accuses the 39-year-old Brazilian international of “rape”, a criminal qualification that is part of sexual assault in the Spanish Penal Code. The young woman reiterated her accusations on Friday before the magistrate, according to this source. The facts would have taken place in the toilets of a fashionable nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30 to 31, according to the media.

Summoned to a Barcelona police station on Friday morning, the footballer had been “placed in police custody” before being transferred to the Barcelona court to be brought before this judge, the Catalan regional police told AFP. The court had announced the opening of an investigation for sexual assault on January 10, after the filing of a complaint by the young woman eight days earlier. According to the source familiar with the matter, the provisional detention of Dani Alves was decided because of the risk of “flight” of the Brazilian player, and the absence of an extradition treaty between Brazil and Spain.

The player denies the facts

In a video message transmitted to the Spanish channel Antena 3 and broadcast on January 5, the player categorically denied the facts. “First of all, I would like to deny it. I was there, in this place, I spent a good evening with other people, but without invading the space of others, ”he said. “I don’t know who this young woman is, I don’t know her,” he still assured.

“On the 30th, he went to dinner with his friends, to disconnect a little, he really needed it. He went out dancing and enjoying the music as he knows how. And that’s all. He did nothing wrong,” said his Spanish wife, Joana Sanz, in an interview broadcast on January 9 on the same channel, describing this information as “without head or tail”.

Ex-player of FC Barcelona, ​​Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain, the most successful footballer in the world (43 trophies), Alves had spent a few days of vacation in Barcelona at the end of December after participating in the World Cup in Qatar with the Brazilian selection. and before returning to his current club Pumas de Mexico.




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